Tomatoes!

This year, I planted four Bush Early Girls (smaller and squatter than traditional Early Girls), two Brandywines, a Sungold Cherry and a Moskvitch (a Russian heirloom variety). The four large plants have new supports that are doing a much better job than my previous bamboo teepee-shaped trellises, and all eight plants have been loving the drip irrigation -- no blossom-end rot this year!

Eventually, the plants were so happy that three of the four the Bush Early Girls collapsed under the weight of all their fruit! So I harvested everything they had (the green ones will ripen on a shelf in the kitchen, still attached to their stems) and pulled them out. This means better air circulation for the larger plants and, frankly, it's not like the two of us were going to be able to eat eight plants' worth of tomatoes.

Here's how the plants look today, after I pulled out the three collapsed plants and did some pruning.


In the photo below, that's one of the Brandywines on the left; the last remaining Bush Early Girl is the smaller one to the right. The blue ornamental is mealy-cup sage (salvia farinacea) and the yellow plume in the upper-right corner is "New Look Yellow" celosia.

With all of this good stuff, we had steak panzanella twice last week!

Steak Panzanella

• Heirloom tomatoes, preferably two different colors, halved or quartered (depending on size)
• Grilled zucchini or summer squash, cut into small chunks
• Grilled french bread, rubbed with garlic and torn into small chunks
• Small amount of chopped onion
• One large steak, medium-rare, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Handful of mixed herbs (basil and dill are lovely)
• Crumbled goat cheese
• A tablespoon or so of capers

Toss with red wine vinaigrette and serve. Perfect for hot weather. Substitute any grilled vegetables you like (it's an easy way to use them up when you have too many ripening veggies in the house).

Vodka alla George

Autumn Chores

Over a beautiful fall weekend, with George displaying all his autumn color ...

... I pulled up the annuals and tomatoes, and cut back the perennials ...

... I brought the parsley indoors (we'll see if it makes it) ...

... we planted three gorgeous "Golden Carousel" barberry shrubs around the front foundation ...

... and we finally got the new house numbers up.

What's In the Water?

Dad just sent me an e-mail asking about one of the photos from the Europe trip. "In the segment on Piran, there are pictures of what look like buoys out in the water (Adriatic), and then ropes with some kind of plant or seaweed attached to them. Do you know what that is?" he asks.

We were confused by that at first, too!! The photos in question (including the two above) were taken while we were on the boat cruise around the peninsula of Piran. We saw the buoys from a distance and were wondering what they were. We thought maybe they were something to do with harvesting salt? For centuries, Piran was famous for salt-making. (Later, though, we learned that they only harvest salt from local salt marshes now, not from the sea anymore.)

When we finally got up close to the buoys and went down to the glass-sectioned part of the keel, we got a good look (which did not translate well on camera) at long ropes covered in mussels. From what we can tell, no special effort is really done other than hanging the ropes in the water: the mussels just choose to attach there. The view we got made it look like it was a mix of mussels, versus just one type: which was borne out on the local menus, all of which advertised plates of "mixed mussels." We ate them twice -- garlicky and buttery, yum!

Hmmm. I wonder if I know anyone who would like mussels.

First Tomatoes!

Despite summer's late start this year and the fact that my tomatoes aren't usually ready until August, I was able to harvest one Brandywine and a few Yellow Pears this week.


With a little olive oil and some sel gris, they were absolutely heavenly. :)

Storm Damage?

Given everything going on in Hugo, Austin and Iowa, I have very little to complain about in terms of storms these days. That said, I wasn't thrilled to walk out Sunday morning and see this.
The storm that passed through on Saturday night was quick, but very intense. Even with all the windows closed, the wind just absolutely howled. (It put me in the mood to watch "The Hound of the Baskervilles.") Sunday morning revealed that our grill cover was blown off, my watering can had been picked up and flung across the yard, plenty of birch limbs were down in the front yard and -- bummer! -- three of my four tomato trellises had been blown over on top of the tomato plants.

I was pretty worried about the plants, which looked crushed by the trellises, but after I carefully untangled them and propped them back up, they seem to be doing okay. Guess we'll see after a few days whether they truly weathered the storm.

The Finishing Touches

Not to suggest that I'm done making changes for the year, but for the most part, the beds in the backyard are done!

Back Bed

Here's how it "started" (after I cleaned it all up) this year.

A few weeks later (you can tell by how much bigger the perennials got), here's how it looked after rearranging some things (according to the nerdy garden plan) and adding a few new items.

Here's the final (for now) version, after adding the alyssum edging.

Tomato Beds

These are pretty much the same as last year, but with more teepees (so each tomato plant gets its own support) and alyssum edging.

Front Bed

By the end of last year, the stachys (lamb's ears) had completely taken over the front bed. They looked really ratty by mid-summer and then just kept getting bigger until they almost swallowed up the nearby annuals. M's take: "Looks like you got ten pounds of sh-t in a five pound bag." (He's so eloquent. But he's right -- look below.)

So I pulled it all out and gave half of it to Seza ...
... making room for a totally different approach.

Here's what was left after the clean-up.

I added a mix of annuals and perennials, following the nerdy garden plan and emphasizing contrasting foliage and butterfly/bird appeal.

Got a little excited while doing the planting and thought, "What the heck -- I'll expand the bed a few square feet."

Here's the "final for now" version, complete with alyssum edging.

So am I done for the year? Not even close! Now come all the new projects (pending budgetary approval), including:

• A more permanent pathway between the patio and the hammock (last year's path was just some hardwood chips on the ground);
• A pathway around the side of the house, leading from the front to the veranda, edged by some interesting ornamentals;
• Installing a shade garden (I'm thinking Looking Glass and Jack Frost brunnera, Ghost and Japanese painted ferns, and maybe some space for flowering annuals like torenia -- definitely no impatiens) under the pine tree to make it prettier and reduce the amount of lawn we have;
• Moving the lilacs, currently languishing in the shade to the south of our patio, to a sunny spot next to the front porch so they can really do their thing;
• Something with the shady part of the back fence (virginia creeper? short reed fencing?);
• Putting in a bed of drought-resistant plants -- anchored by tall ornamental grasses -- outside our dining room window, giving us more privacy and less lawn;
• And, come fall, expanding all of the backyard beds so I can have more space for edibles, a small walking path through the beds and, again, less lawn. :)

Is all of this going to happen this year? Not likely (it's certainly not all likely to make it through the budget review process), but it's nice to dream.

Putting in the Edibles

Spring gardening is a great opportunity to look back at what did or didn't work last year and adjust accordingly. For example, I really liked how much color variety I was able to incorporate into last summer's recipes by growing tomatoes in three colors. This year, I'm trying the same for basil (on the left), with traditional sweet basil, a variegated basil called "Pesto Perpetuo" and African Blue Basil. In the pot on the right are chives and cilantro.

Another adjustment: Last year, I used the fresh dill so often that I killed the plant, so this year, I planted twice as much (lower right, next to the Italian flat-leaf parsley). Something that's staying the same as last year: I potted two miniature "Ballad" sunflowers because the goldfinches loved them last summer.When it came to tomatoes, I wanted to adjust a few things this year, but how I dealt with the soil (adding manure and compost) wasn't one of them -- that seemed to work perfectly.
I also stuck with last year's technique of putting a whole raw egg in the bottom of the planting hole.
However, an early season wind storm last year made me realize that each tomato plant needs its own trellis. I lost of lot of tomato plant branches -- most of which had started to set fruit -- last year because of the wind. This year, each plant gets its own bamboo teepee: tall ones for the two Brandywines (I can't get enough of them!) and smaller ones for the two "mini" tomatoes, black cherry and yellow pear (for the multi-color effect in salads).

I'm also planning to ring the tomato beds with alyssum this year. No reason not to have the ornamentals in with the edibles! Plus, I can't get enough alyssum, so this year, I'm planning to buy a flat of it and have it edge all the beds. Stay tuned!

T-Day Dinner -- Later

After dinner, Ron served up a home-made cheescake with pumpkin-caramel topping. Mmmm!
Sam and the iPod, both recharging. :)

Pat, Sam, Steve and Ron headed home, and we stayed up with M's parents. These photos were during the "What was the best concert you've ever seen?" conversation -- I think D&D said theirs was Iron Butterfly.

Then we woke up the next day to Donn's amazing eggs benedict with crab, which -- to steal one of his catchphrases -- did not suck. :)

Thanksgiving Dinner at Our Place

We flew out to Seattle in early November to do our traditional "no-parents" Thanksgiving with Phil, Mike, Laura and Addie, but as the actual T-day approached, we thought it might be nice to have a few people over for a small meal.

Originally, we were thinking of just M's parents coming over to have some wine and a really simple dinner (like home-made pizza), and maybe sleep over so they wouldn't have to drive home late. Inevitably, it turned into a little more than that: after we invited Steve, Ron, Pat and Sam, I got a little carried away. Shocking, right? :)

So the weekend before, I polished all the silver, planned the meal and went food shopping, and hung all the Christmas decorations.
We planned to have everyone over on Wednesday night, so I worked from home on Wednesday, which gave me the opportunity to get the oven going in the afternoon for the ham. Yes, ham -- neither one of us is very fond of turkey, and ham worked out perfectly for my all-Southern Thanksgiving menu:

• Peach-glazed ham,
• Kentucky cranberry conserve,
• Green beans sauteed with onions and bacon,
• Corn pudding,
• Home-made bread (thanks, Ron!),
• And delicious crispy potato casserole (thanks, Pat!).
  

And of course, Sam got to lick the bacon pan.